Singer, musician, record producer, and dancer Rick James passed away at the age of 74. When the military caught James and accused him of desertion, his time with the organization was up.
He spent a few months in prison.
The moment James was released from prison, he packed everything and headed for California. A slew of rock and funk bands were formed by him in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
James formed the influential Stone City Band in Buffalo in 1977.
In 1978, he released the album Come Get It!, which featured the singles “You and I” and “Mary Jane,” and earned him widespread acclaim as a musical artist. For James, 1981 saw the release of Street Songs, his most commercially successful album to date.
Who is Rick James?
On February 1, 1948, Johnson entered the world. He was born in Buffalo, New York. James Ambrose Johnson Sr. and Mabel (previously Sims) Johnson were his parents. To put it simply, he was the seventh of eight children.
He was a choir boy and altar boy at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church. Rick James‘s father, who worked at a garage, abandoned the family when James was 10 years old. His mom was Katherine Dunham’s dancer, and she still dances occasionally.
Subsequently, she cleaned houses during the day and did bookkeeping for a Buffalo crime family at night. James watched John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Etta James perform in clubs where his mother collected dues because he accompanied her on her route.
Rick James’s Cause of Death
The body of James, 56, was discovered on August 6 at his home in Hollywood. Since James had not visited a doctor recently, the death was turned over to the coroner. The autopsy took place on August 7, but the coroner’s pathologist is waiting on the results of toxicology and other tests before determining the cause of death.
In this case, the coroner ruled that the death was caused by abrupt cardiac dysfunction associated with idiopathic cardiomyopathy, sometimes known as heart enlargement. The coroner’s office also noted “effects of various medicines” and “focal pneumonia” as contributory factors.
The toxicology report noted the presence of several narcotics, including alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), bupropion (Wellbutrin), citalopram (Celexa), hydrocodone (Vicodin), digoxin (Lanoxin), chlorpheniramine (Dilantin), methamphetamine (Meth), and cocaine.
Without the presence of other substances, “none of the medications or drug combinations were found to be at levels that were directly lethal.
” James, who shot to fame with the 1981 smash hit “Super Freak,” had a long history of cocaine addiction that eventually landed him in prison for abusing two women.
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Career
During the year 1964, James escaped to Toronto. Three inebriated men attacked him just outside a club after he arrived. Other men came to his aid, totaling three. Levon Helm was a member of Ronnie Hawkins’ band at the time. James was invited to the band’s show by Helm, and he ended up performing onstage with the group.
James became acquaintances with local musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell during his time in Toronto. Instead of James, the US military would have been looking for Ricky James Matthews, so he hid under that name. James also formed a band that year called The Mynah Birds.
Their sound combined elements of soul, folk, and rock.
Singles of the band’s 1965 “Mynah Bird Hop” and “Mynah Bird Song” recordings for Columbia Records’ Canadian division were released that same year. At one point, Nick St. Nicholas (later of the legendary band Steppenwolf) was a member, but he had been replaced on bass by Bruce Palmer by the time “Mynah Bird Hop” was recorded.
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In order to reform the Mynah Birds, James and Palmer recruited guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor, as well as drummer Rick Mason. Instantaneously, they jetted off to Motown’s headquarters in Detroit to begin recording. Morgan decided to leave because he was unhappy with the label’s treatment of the artists.
That was before they began working on their debut album’s worth of music for the label. After all, Neil Young ended up replacing him. James had the pleasure of meeting Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder while in Detroit.
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In his opinion, they were two of the best in their field. James told Wonder that his full name is Ricky James Matthews, but Wonder thought that was “too long,” so he suggested that James simply go by “Ricky James.”
